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Friday, 24 January 2014

Eldar vs Tyranids 1500: Hunger from the void

A Shadow in the warp has surrounded an exodite world, and they have
called out for help from their craftworld brethren,
Dem-Kirath always answers the call. This is a 1500 point game between Eldar and
Tyranids in a game of Crusade (4 objectives) with vanguard strike deployment.
Will the eldar be able to stave off the swarms of the great devourer or will
all be digested before it.

Our mission this game is Crusade (4 objectives) with vanguard strike
deployment zones. In the roll off the tyranids win the choice of deployment
zones, but the eldar win the roll for first turn. The objectives are placed
rather close together; one goes on top of the imperial out post, another in the
trees in my deployment zone. Another goes behind the large tree and the last in
the trees in the tyranid deployment zone. We decide not to use mysterious
objectives.

Eldar deployment was rather simple; the wraithknight and warp spiders
went up front to hopefully take out the important units early on. The fire
dragon wave serpent went on the left, and the dire avengers wave serpent went
on the right. At the back I placed the fire prism, and the farseer and a single
bike unit goes in the middle of my force protected. I keep the crimson hunter,
swooping hawks and a single bike unit in reserve.

In response the tyranids deploy both units of termagants, the
venomthrope and the tyranid prime out in front. The venomthrope hides behind
the trees though to improve its cover save. He infiltrates the genestealers
into the woods next to the objective in his deployment zone and keeps the rest
of his force in reserve, that’s 2 mawlocks deep striking, 2 crones and the hive
tyrant. I was surprised by this as it was night fighting turn 1, but it was his
choice.

Deployment

Night Fighting: Turn 1

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

The farseer casts guide on the wraithknight to start the phase, I
spread out the force to get away from any clumping and preventing any mawlock
issues later on. The dire avenger serpent moves to the right while the fire
dragons slowly move up the left flank. I move the fire prism onto the imperial
outpost, while the warp spiders warp jump (and lose 1 of their members in the
warp) towards the termagants on the right the wraithknight goes on a hunting
mission after the venomthrope.

The distance between the spiders and the termagants is just over 15
inches, so they attempt to run, but even with the re-roll from fleet they won’t
make it in range so they just move back instead. In a bit of a long shot, the
wraithknight shoots at the venomthrope hoping to reduce the armies cover save
but only hits once and rolls a 1 to wound, shame. The right wave serpent shoots
at the termagants on the right with all three guns but thanks to the
venomthrope and night fighting it is only able to kill 4 off thanks to its
serpent shield. The serpent on the left kills 2 genestealers and the fire prism
just scatters horrible failing to hit anything. To finish the shooting phase
the farseer casts executioner on the genestealers but they deny the witch.

Assault phase and both the warp spiders and bikes move away from the
approaching swarm.

Tyranids turn 1

Going full throttle the stealer make a break from the tree line
straight for the wraithknight who is 16 inches away, so a possible first turn
charge. Both units of termagants move for the eldar lines as do the warriors.

Running phase and both the termagants and warriors run 5.

Assault phase and the wraithknight is potentially in trouble, the
genestealers roll the charge range and get 7 (6 and 1), he re-rolls the 1 and
gets a 3, still 1 inch short and fails the charge, thank god.

Eldar turn 2

No more night fighting, and in from reserve come the swooping hawks.
They deep strike on the right hand side facing the termagants. Their grenade
pack unfortunately misses as it scatters to wide. The wave serpent on the left
moves back away from the genestealers as the wraithknight, warp spiders and
bikes move towards them.

The first torrent of shots onto the stealers comes from the warp
spiders who somehow only manage to kill 3 of the aliens and run away (the eldar
way). The bikes do much better and kill 5 of the stealers and the wraithknight
kills the broodlord and 1 other stealer. On the right the swooping hawks bring
down 4 termagants, just enough to allow the wave serpent to kill off the
remainders gaining first blood. The serpent on the left targets the genstealers
(only 2 left) and fails to get a single wound… stupid tank. Widening its beam,
the prism uses the large blast template to kill some gaunts, but again scatters
a lot and only kills 1 stealer and a gaunt.

Assault phase and the wraithknight fails to charge the lone stealer
while both the bikes and spiders fall back again.

Tyranid turn 2

Reserve rolls are made, and 4 units enter play. First one in is a
mawlock, he places his template under the warp spiders, but it scatters off
towards the bikes and lands on top of two of them, but only 1 dies, the second
template fails to kill the remaining bike in the mawlocks way causing it to
mishap (and goes back into reserve). The second mawlock also goes after the
warp spiders and this time scatters the other direction but considerably less,
still clipping the spiders, killing 2 of them. Shrieking as it swoops in over
the battle field, the hive crone (proxied by a razorwing jetfighter) enters
play and moves over the wraithknight, vector striking it and causing it to lose
2 wounds. Finally the flyrant arrives and goes towards the bike squad. Scuttling
across the ground the genestealer moves closer to the wraithknight while the remaining
termagants would take the objective in the trees. The warriors move towards the
bikes.

Shooting from the tyrant on the bikes and forces me to take a lot of
saves, and the farseer was the closest model so I had to take look out sire
rolls. By the end of it the farseer lost a single wound but the bikes pass 6
wounds. Releasing a single tentaclid at the fire prism, but the creature misses
the shot. Unloading their shots, the warriors manage to kill a single biker and
forcing a moral test, but they hold on the bikers leadership (as the shadow in
the warp reduced the farseers leadership lower than the guardians).

Assault phase and the lone stealer charges into the wraithknight, and
he rolls amazingly, rending him twice! The wraithknight is now reduced to 2
wounds in a single turn. He steps on the bug for daring to damage him, and
consolidated towards the warriors.

Eldar turn 3

My flyer comes in from reserve and aims at taking out the hive tyrant,
going straight for it. The swooping hawks leave the battle with skyleap, aiming
to come back later. With the monsters now visible the fire dragons get out and
move towards the hive tyrant. On the right the wave serpent moves away from the
mawlock but keeping it in range. The bikes and fire prism both move back,
hoping to prevent getting assaulted.

With the spiders in danger they shoot at the mawlock which just killed
two of their number, but only manage to inflict a single wound to the monster.
The serpent on the right shoots at it as well dealing a further 2 wounds. Firing
all its weapons at the tyrant, the crimson hunter manages to hit it 4 times but
the tyrant evades, dodging 2 of the shots but it still loses 2 wounds.
Punctured and bleeding it still manages to stay in the sky. Wanting to down the
monster the wave serpent unloads its entire payload at it, but fails to hit it.
The fire dragons do the same, a single shot hits, wounds but is evaded. But
luckily in order to dodge the shot the tyrant loses control and plunges into
the ground, taking a wound and being reduced to 1. With a perfect shot the fire
prism fires its focused beam and takes off the last wound of the tyrant. both
shots from the wraithknight wounds the warriors but the venomthropes cover
saves the shots.

Assault phase and the wraithkngiht charges into the warriors, its
hammer of wraith instantly kills a warrior. The prime strikes next but fails to
wound the wraithknight, allowing the knight to kill 3 more warriors.

Tyranids turn 3

The mawlock arrives again from reserve, after the fire dragons but
again he scatters and ends up under the outpost, and we decide that’s a mishap,
again going back into reserve. The second crone comes in (proxied by the dead
tyrant) and moves towards the crimson hunter, and the original crone goes after
the hunter as well. The mawlock is outside of synapse range and fails its
instinctive behaviour, and fails, gaining rage and having to charge the closest
model so moves towards the warp spiders.

The first crone fires two tentaclids at the crimson hunter and hit
with both of them. Both glance the flyer and it attempts to evade, but fails,
being reduced to a single hull point. Seeing its pray wounded the second crone
fires two more tentaclids are the crimson hunter, but hitting and getting a
penetrating hit. Again the flyer fails to evade and explodes in the air, its
debris scattering into the open not hitting anyone.

Assault phase and the mawlock charges into the warp spiders, who fail
to do any wounds with over watch. Striking first the blades of the spiders can’t
get past the tick hide of the monster, dooming them as it kills every last one
of them. It was a massacre. In the centre of the table the wraithknight faces
off against the prime, the prime strikes first this time hitting with all its
attacks, and then a single wound makes it with his bone sword. As the prime
needed a 6 to wound, and the sword instant kills on a 6, the wraithknight dies
to a single hit. I didn’t see that coming.

Eldar turn 4

Again the hawks swoop in from reserve and land towards the top right
side of the table. They attempt to grenade the gaunts but the grenades scatters
too far to do any damage. The bikes finally arrive and appear on the right side
of the table away from the action. On the left the fire dragons move towards
the mawlock, hoping to finish off the wounded beast with their melta weapons. Being
extremely close to the mawlock the fire prism moves away over the woods. The
dire avengers wave serpent faces the prime hoping to take him out, and as some
insurance the other wave serpent moves up and faces the prim as well.

I start with the fire dragon, hoping to burn the mawlock, but after a
bad roll to hit the monster only takes a single wound. Sending forth his astral
form the farseer executes 4 gaunts then the swooping hawks kill a further 3.
First the dire avenger’s wave serpent shoots at the prim but after shooting
with its scatter laser, serpent shield and shuriken cannon it only manages to
deal a single wound to it! The second serpent then does the same and also gets
a single wound reducing him to 1. Again going for the kill shot, the fire prism
aims at the tyranid prim, and misses. The new unit of bikes boosts into the
opponents table half. Not a very killy turn.

Tyranids turn 4

Finally emerging from the ground, the second mawlock appears and goes
after the new biker unit. He scatters again though and doesn’t harm the bikes.
The other mawlock moves towards the fire prism getting with in an easy charge
range. Both crones drop out of the sky and prepare to charge, one goes after
the fire dragons, the other to the fire dragons wave serpent. With the farseer
so close the gaunts move to get as many guns in range of him but also getting
close enough for the prime to join the squad.

Shooting fleshborers first, the gaunts pepper the farseer and biker
friend but fail to get past the bikes armour. The crone fires its last two tentaclids
at the wave serpent in front of it and one hits and glances it. Firing its
drool cannon, the other crone attempts to kill some fire dragons but it can’t
get past their armour.

Assault and both crones charge, the first charges into the fire
dragons who fail to get any over watch hits. In combat the Crone misses most of
its attacks then rolls double 1 to wound, giving the fire dragons and opportunity
fire melta bomb it, but the fire dragons fail to even hit. The combat is a
draw. The other crone smashes into the wave serpent and immobilises it. The
mawlock charges into the fire prism and gets 2 penetrating hits, immobilising
it and ripping off its prism cannon. While not a great turn for me it could
have gone a lot worse.

Eldar turn 5

With this potentially the last turn I have to grab objectives or I
will lose, so I move the full bike unit to the objective behind the large tree,
while the farseer and biker goes towards the termagants. The wave serpent that
can move makes sure it can see the termagants, but is a little but at risk from
a mawlock charge.

Shooting from the wave serpent kills a good 8 gaunts, the bikes kill a
further 2 making the prime the closest model. The farseer shoots at the unit
and manages to get two blade storms off and the prism fails his look out sir
and finally dies. The last shots come from the hawks who kill and extra 3
reducing the squad to a single model, and with the prime gone, he rolls moral
and gets a double 1 and holds.

Assault and the crone and mawlock wreck their tanks with ease. The
crone vs fire dragons is a little more exiting this time, the mawlock kills a
single dragon and then they get 2 wounds on it back with their melta bombs.

Tyranids turn 5

Somehow every unit passes its instinctive behaviour test, including
that 1 gaunt holding his objective! Hoping for a turn 6, the mawlock in the
middle of nowhere burrows hoping for a turn 6. The other goes to the wave
serpent and the crone not in combat takes to the skies towards the farseer.

No shooting so straight to combat and the venomthrope charges into the
farseer, and at initiative 6 kills the biker, but the farseer fails to kill it
but holds his ground. The mawlock explodes the wave serpent and kills a single
dire avenger. In the slap fight the crone kills 2 more fire dragons and takes a
wound back. The fire dragons hold though.

That game was far too close, and honestly I don’t think I deserved to
win that game. I won due to my opponent rolling badly and misshaping his
mawlock TWICE! If he came in turn 2, I would have been in deep trouble as I
struggled to deal with his monsters without that issue. If he had also had all
3 flying monstrous creatures on the table turn 1 I would have been in so much
trouble I wouldn’t have been able to deal with them.

Unfortunately my opponent, having been a nid player for a very long
time has been disappointed with the codex and didn’t enjoy the game. He feels
that codex isn’t up to par and he doesn’t want to spend hours trying to come up
with an OK list when every other codex can make one without hassle. It’s a
shame but I feel that his list is good and could be very good when worked on.

Anyway what did I learn?

·Wraithknight: While going after the warriors
wasn’t a bad idea throwing it against the genestealers was pointless and just
got him injured. I need to use him more as a hunter-killer unit and only go
after prize targets, but something a shuriken catapult can kill.

·Deployment: This game I feel my deployment
wasn’t great, but I didn’t know where his units would appear, again it’s like
the drop pod issue but more monstrous. I guess I have to come up with plans on
how to deal with certain deployment types next.

·Army list: The list was designed for anti-lord
of war, but it struggles against regular lists. I think I will have to go over
it once more to deal with this.

·Farseer: I need a better plan for him, that game
I just chucked him on a bike with eldar powers and hoped for the best. It
didn’t do great. I might go over the 3 different power charts he can use and
decide what’s best for him.

That was my first game against the new tyranids, and my friend has
been nice enough to let me borrow his nids so I can play around with them,
unfortunately I will have to proxie a lot of the things I want but still, it
could be a laugh.

4 comments:

I would be a little more aggressive with the Dire Avengers. With their pseudo- Rending, they can plink off a wound or two from a Tyranid MC. With 18'' range and Battle Focus, they can potentially be out of charge range the following turn as well.